Buckle up for an energy-packed look into Rocks vs Big Rigs.

Welcome to Class CrunchLabs (CCL), a completely free, NGSS-designed (phenomena and problem-based) curriculum resource composed of short, modular units packed with videos, activities, googly eyes, and serious science sensemaking.

In this session, we’ll join YouTuber Mark Rober and his unit co-hosts as they navigate the Rocks vs Big Rigs storyline [MS-PS3-1 & MS-PS3-5]. We’ll explore how to lead classroom investigations designed by the CrunchLabs toy engineers, teach with interactive video assessments, track student progress using Mission Logs (student portfolios) and reflection activities, plus more.

Curious about teacher and student supports? Our curriculum writers will host these discussions firsthand and answer your questions. We’ll also explore how to customize the curriculum to fit your classroom, all while keeping our eyes on the ultimate goal: sparking student curiosity and boosting creative confidence. Of course, we'll engage in plenty of purposeful play, which may or may not include your very own mini-rigs, ramps, and a gravel bed that may surprise you.

Please Note: Mark Rober will not attend this session, but he may share a video message for early adopters. Don't miss out

TAKEAWAYS:
--Gain a clear understanding of how to implement CCL's NGSS-designed, phenomenon-based science units and promote sensemaking through hands-on investigations into kinetic energy. --Explore effective strategies for using CCL's interactive video assessments, Mission Logs (student portfolios), and reflection activities to track and support student progress. --Discover ways to customize and adapt this playful, engaging curriculum to spark student curiosity and build creative confidence in your classroom.

This presentation focuses on student use of AI, with an emphasis on how their motivation can help build a classroom of Sensemakers. Participants will engage with several AI tools and applications commonly used by high school students and evaluate how these tools can be leveraged to support Sensemaking. A strong emphasis will be placed on classroom assessment examples, particularly those involving the critique of AI-generated responses to traditional open-ended student questions. Additionally, survey data from current high school physics students will be shared to help examine student voice regarding the use and leverage of AI implemented instructional strategies. Attendees will leave with adaptable tools and clear next steps to immediately implement routines and activities that foster a community of Sensemakers who also use AI in their learning environments.

TAKEAWAYS:
Instead of fighting AI, flip the script in your high school classroom. This session will explore multiple AI tools, but more importantly, how to leverage those tools to build a community of Sensemakers that critically analyze AI-generated content. Special emphasis will be placed on assessment use.

SPEAKERS:
Matthew Bulman

In the modern science classroom, literacy extends far beyond the lab bench, it now encompasses the digital interfaces through which our students consume and process scientific information. This session explores the critical convergence of digital, media, and AI literacies and how they can be leveraged to sharpen, rather than bypass, scientific thinking. As students navigate a digital Wild West of social media algorithms and AI-generated content, the traditional motto of "seeing is believing" is no longer enough. We will discuss how to move students from passive consumers to active investigators by teaching them to recognize human influence in media, understand AI as a pattern-recognition tool rather than a "truth machine," and apply epistemic vigilance to scientific claims found online.

TAKEAWAYS:
Moving from the era of "finding information" to "filtering information" to ensure students use digital tools for the betterment of society. Join us to discover how to transform the potential distractions into powerful opportunities for deep sensemaking and critical scientific inquiry.

SPEAKERS:
Christine Anne Royce

To fully understand genetics, students must be able to use the science practices to connect the proteins produced via gene expression and an organism’s traits. During this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore a free HHMI BioInteractive resource focused on helping students understand the relationship between molecular biology and classical genetics by exploring Leber congenital amaurosis, an inherited form of blindness. We’ll engage with several science practices including data analysis, modeling, and constructing explanations as we model classroom implementation strategies to help students build mastery of genetics. Workshop participants will also engage as practitioners to reflect on their own classroom implementation related to incorporating and adapting resources and strategies shared in the workshop to deepen student understanding of how the inheritance of traits is the result of the mechanism of gene expression.

TAKEAWAYS:
Workshop participants will engage as learners and as practitioners to reflect on their own classroom implementation of resources and strategies to deepen student understanding of how the inheritance of traits is the result of the mechanism of gene expression.

SPEAKERS:
Sherry Annee, Ann Brokaw

How can students design technologies that detect and warn people about natural hazards, while learning the science behind them? In this interactive session, experience how OpenSciEd + Computer Science integrates coding, sensors, and engineering design into a 6th-grade science unit on Natural Hazards. Step into the role of students as you investigate earthquakes and tsunamis using micro:bit devices to collect and analyze data. See how students design and program early warning systems by adjusting inputs, thresholds, and outputs. Discover how coding helps students unlock the “black box” of technology, seeing how it works as they build it, while deepening science understanding. Ideal for current OpenSciEd users and those new to the curriculum.

TAKEAWAYS:
Experience how students use coding, sensors, and engineering design to unlock the “black box” of technology while designing early warning systems for natural hazards through phenomenon-based science learning

SPEAKERS:
Kristy Lathrop

This session proposal outlines a student-driven, guided inquiry approach to teaching molecular properties and ionic bonding using tactile models. The activity is structured into five key phases:Foundation & Model Building: Students use LEGO bricks to establish that molecular properties are rooted in composition, setting class-defined rules for using the bricks as elements. Ionic Inquiry: Through experimentation with over 15 compounds (e.g., $CaO$, $Al_{2}O_{3}$), students assign specific ions to LEGO configurations to discover unique chemical combinations. Pattern Recognition: Students map charge numbers onto a periodic table, allowing them to independently identify ionic charge patterns across groups. Application: The lesson concludes with thinking questions and traditional formula writing for compounds like sodium chloride. Extension: The framework allows for natural exploration of periodic trends and nomenclature once students have mastered formula balancing.

TAKEAWAYS:
The main takeaway of this session is a student-driven, guided inquiry approach that uses tactile LEGO models to bridge the gap between abstract chemical composition and the concrete patterns of ionic bonding and periodic trends.

SPEAKERS:
Jeff Sesemann

What if one carefully crafted question could transform engagement in your high school biology class, especially for multilingual Black and Brown learners? In this interactive session, participants explore the Cultural Bridges strategy: using a single, intentional question to connect learners’ lived experiences to NGSS biology phenomena without lowering rigor. We will examine provided biology lesson excerpts that include subtle deficit or paternalistic “savior” framings and practice rewriting them through Cultural Bridges questions that honor learners’ cultural and linguistic wealth. Educators will analyze sample questions, see how they shift discourse and sensemaking, and consider where this move fits naturally in upcoming units. No materials required—examples and templates are provided. Participants are welcome to bring their own for reference and crosswalking.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants leave with simple templates and sample Cultural Bridges questions for high school biology that they can adapt to connect learners’ lived experiences to NGSS phenomena while interrupting deficit and white savior framings.

SPEAKERS:
Almitra Berry

Experience how embedding literacy supports for reading, writing, and academic discourse in 3D teaching and learning promotes sensemaking and science understanding for ALL learners! Learn how the BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning (AIL) instructional model succeeds the 5Es and embeds literacy supports throughout cycles of inquiry. The NGSS calls for 3D learning grounded in real world phenomena to ensure science learning is equitable and relevant to all students. The SEPs and CCCs require sensemaking of complex texts and data as well as communicating explanations and arguments and engaging in scientific discourse. In this session, participants will 1) experience literacy strategies that support student engagement in the SEPs and CCCs, 2) consider how these strategies support all students, particularly below grade-level readers and EMLs, in sensemaking, and 3) consider how embedding these strategies in assessments allows all students to demonstrate their learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
The research-based BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning instructional model succeeds the 5Es and embeds literacy supports for reading, writing, and academic discourse in conjunction with science and engineering practices and crosscutting concepts to promote students in figuring out key science ideas.

SPEAKERS:
Cynthia Gay

How can we design science learning that allows multilingual learners to shine? This session explores instructional approaches and teacher moves that create rich opportunities for students to use their full range of meaning-making resources. Through classroom examples—such as building consensus ideas or sharing noticings and wonderings about puzzling phenomena—we'll examine moments when students make their thinking public, collaborate, and grow as sensemakers. Drawing on BSCS Science Learning's research and curriculum development, this session offers concrete, classroom-tested strategies you can bring back immediately.

TAKEAWAYS:
Multilingual learners are brilliant and capable of engaging in rich and rigorous scientific sensemaking when classrooms make space for their ideas. Walk away with practical tools and routines that elevate student thinking and strengthen whole-class science sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Gomez Zwiep

How can educators (re)imagine science education that builds authentic, transformative opportunities for deepening engagement towards career and community readiness? We will introduce participants to a framework for Place-Based Science Teaching that dynamically supports science teachers in (re)envisioning and creating learning activities to respond to the historical and present contexts of students and schools, all while integrating rigorous science practices and phenomena. In this NGSS-aligned session, participants will explore high-interest activities that strengthen students’ sense of geographic location and geologic time, all while triangulating themselves and their potential as scientists in their local context. We’ll then provide an opportunity for participants to engage in a (re)design challenge of an existing activity through the lens of the Place-Based Science Teaching framework. This framework was published in our book with Corwin Press (2025).

TAKEAWAYS:
Place-based learning honors the lived experiences of students and the living beings that form a community. Participants will learn how to develop NGSS-aligned, place-based science lessons that cultivate curiosity and innovation.

SPEAKERS:
Kirstin Milks, Whitney Aragaki

In this interactive session, teachers will experience the science practice of Asking Questions from the perspective of their students. Participants will engage in phenomena-based tasks that spark curiosity, generate investigable questions, and refine those questions through collaborative routines. By functioning as learners, teachers will develop a clearer understanding of how questioning supports sensemaking and drives investigations at different grade levels. Educators will leave with questioning structures, talk moves, and classroom-ready tools to empower students to lead their own learning. Experience the science practice of Asking Questions from the perspective of their students. Engage in phenomena-based tasks that spark curiosity and prompt authentic, investigable questions. Refine and improve questions through collaborative routines and discussion. Leave with questioning structures, talk moves, and classroom-ready tools that empower students to take ownership of their learning

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will engage in phenomena-based tasks to spark, refine, and prioritize student-led questions. By practicing collaborative routines and talk moves, you’ll leave with classroom-ready tools to shift ownership to students, using their curiosity to drive deep sensemaking and investigation.

SPEAKERS:
Heather Galbreath, Misty Richmond

In this interactive session, participants will put on ‘student hats’ to experience beginning-of-year routines that launch themselves and their creativity into a science community. These community-building routines bring multilingual learners’ (MLs) identities into a science class, embed support for MLs within core science instruction, and invite curiosity in learning using crosscutting themes in science. Beginning the year intentionally is essential to cultivate a language-rich learning environment. Participants will engage in structured discussion, scaffolded writing, and identity-centered activities that position students’ linguistic resources as building blocks for learning. Teachers will analyze student work and instructional materials to see how these routines establish norms for collaboration and opportunities for assessment of executive functioning skills. Designed for typical secondary class periods, participants will leave with ready-to-use scaffolds and discussion structures.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will bring back multiple strategies for beginning-of-year activities that center student diversity into secondary science classrooms, and an overview of assessment opportunities, guiding teachers towards developing a welcoming, language-rich, and collaborative learning environment.

SPEAKERS:
Kirby Selle, Alexander Dafforn

Discover incredible opportunities in STEM education with a range of NSTA-administered K-12 opportunities that engage through innovative programming and recognize achievement with amazing awards. We’ll explore programs and awards that are sure to ignite a passion for discovery and innovation

TAKEAWAYS:
Empower your teaching with dynamic STEM programs and awards administered by NSTA as you learn about innovative opportunities to boost engagement and enthusiasm for K-12 students and teachers.

SPEAKERS:
Kathryn Lasky

Participation in science classroom discussions is often uneven, with multilingual learners (MLs) contributing less frequently despite having valuable ideas to share. Because scientific learning depends on engaging in practices such as argumentation from evidence and constructing explanations, limited participation can restrict opportunities for MLs to develop and demonstrate understanding. This presentation synthesizes research from science education, language development, and classroom discourse to examine factors that shape who participates in science discussions. Particular attention is given to how classroom norms, teacher responses, and interactional structures influence MLs’ opportunities to engage in evidence-based reasoning. Drawing on literature and classroom examples, the session highlights approaches that support more equitable participation and meaningful engagement in scientific discourse.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will examine how classroom structures shape participation in science discussions and how to make multilingual learners’ thinking visible in scientific discourse.

SPEAKERS:
Tina Ahmadi

This poster showcases how a school garden can function as core instructional infrastructure rather than enrichment in NGSS-aligned science classrooms. Drawing from a middle school program integrating aquaponics, trout systems, and food production, the poster highlights how outdoor spaces support three-dimensional learning through real-world phenomena. Attendees will explore a visual system model connecting fish, plants, nutrients, and community food systems, alongside classroom examples of data analysis, modeling, and CER-based explanations. The poster also outlines how multilingual learners are supported through structured discourse, visual scaffolds, and hands-on investigation. A key focus is scalability: participants will examine pathways for implementing similar systems across contexts, from no garden to container-based setups to full outdoor learning spaces. Attendees will leave with practical strategies, lesson entry points, and a framework for integrating food systems into scien

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to design and scale garden-based systems as core instructional infrastructure to support NGSS-aligned, multilingual-accessible science learning through modeling, data analysis, and real-world phenomena.

SPEAKERS:
Ryan Johnson

This session presents three low-prep, high-impact instructional routines for PreK–3 classrooms that advance student sensemaking, science discourse, and science practices. Grounded in purposeful questioning, co-constructed anchor charts, and class-generated science books, these function as efficient, reusable instructional structures that support inquiry, evidence-based reasoning, and equitable participation. Designed for implementation within typical time, material, and planning constraints, the strategies embed formative assessment by capturing student thinking in real time. PreK inclusive classroom-tested examples illustrate how these approaches scaffold language development, support diverse learners, and promote coherent understanding of core science concepts over time. This presentation shares adaptable templates, questioning frameworks, differentiated instruction and replicable routines that enhance instructional rigor while streamlining planning and materials management.

TAKEAWAYS:
Ready-to-implement approaches with examples–purposeful questioning, anchor charts, and class science books—that strengthen student sensemaking and discourse while embedding formative assessment and reducing planning time for Inclusive, PreK classroom-tested, science instruction.

SPEAKERS:
Jue Wang, Karen Rinehart

Teachers have expressed a desire to incorporate authentic climate data into their curricula, but struggle to find accessible and meaningful datasets that can be easily integrated into modern teaching practices. In response to this problem, climate scientists and instructional specialists from the University of Colorado Boulder have collaborated to create "Data Puzzles", a free resource that utilizes instructional practices as outlined by Ambitious Science Teaching (AST) to engage students in data analysis in the context of important scientific research. Data Puzzles challenge students to analyze and interpret climate datasets to construct explanatory models for important questions like, "What is causing the megadrought in the Colorado River Basin?” and "Why might the Arctic be warming faster than the rest of the world?".

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be introduced with AST practices and authentic climate datasets in the context of the Data Puzzle resources.

SPEAKERS:
Jonathan Griffith

What does digital literacy actually look like in a classroom? In this lesson showcase, step inside an Inquisitive Technology lesson and experience how students move from clicking to thinking. Through a real classroom example, see how inquiry-based routines help students use digital tools with purpose, communicate responsibly, and make informed choices online. Watch how a simple, open-and-go lesson builds understanding of digital systems, online safety, and responsible decision-making. Notice how student thinking is surfaced, supported, and extended through discussion, interaction, and reflection. With built-in supports and multiple entry points, these lessons make digital literacy meaningful for students and manageable for teachers. Walk away with practical ideas you can use right away.

TAKEAWAYS:
Seeing a digital literacy lesson in action reveals how simple, structured routines can help students think critically, make informed choices, and act responsibly in a digital world.

SPEAKERS:
Renee Shaw

This poster highlights a 6th grade project in which students observe a mini-ecosystem of anoles, insects, and plants, then design and construct models to explain interactions, energy flow, and system dynamics. Students develop and use models and construct evidence-based explanations to represent relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers. The poster includes student models, explanation samples, and assessment strategies that make thinking visible and support evaluation of three-dimensional learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Design and assess three-dimensional learning by using student models and explanations to capture evidence of systems thinking and energy flow in ecosystems.

SPEAKERS:
Shelby Irvin

Many secondary science classrooms struggle to move beyond task completion to true student thinking. This poster session highlights low-prep, high-impact strategies that transform everyday lessons into opportunities for student-driven sensemaking—without increasing teacher workload. Participants will explore how to embed sensemaking routines into what they already do using strategies such as CER (Claim-Evidence-Reasoning) micro-responses, structured student talk, and phenomenon-based prompts across topics like cells, genetics, and ecology. The featured lesson showcase demonstrates how a typical class period can shift from passive learning to active meaning-making through small instructional moves implemented before, during, and after instruction. By centering sensemaking, these strategies help students construct explanations, use evidence, and engage in scientific discourse, all while remaining practical for real classrooms with limited time and resources.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn that sensemaking doesn’t require new lessons—small shifts like CER, structured talk, and phenomena-based prompts can turn everyday instruction into opportunities for students to actively build understanding.

SPEAKERS:
Ashley Hill

The session will showcase literacy integration examples from ML-PBL Science Classrooms. Handouts will provide links to the FREE OER ML-PBL units of instruction for Grades K-5, unit/lesson framework showcasing coherence, cross-disciplinary connections; lesson overviews and instructional routines; guidance for formative and summative assessment; literacy integration affordances; and alignment with The Framework/NGSS. ML-PBL units are designed to address ALL grade level NGSS, provide guidance for three-dimensional instruction and learning, engaging all students in sensemaking, and developing and using language literacy and mathematics tools to develop usable science knowledge. Examples of trade books included in the units will be shared.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will peruse plans for integrating science and literacy, and for extending science ideas throughout the school day as shared by ML-PBL Elementary Teachers. They will learn how to access FREE OER Elementary Science Units.

SPEAKERS:
Susan Codere

Looking for a way to bring authentic Earth System data to life for your students? Check out our My NASA Data StoryMap collection! My NASA Data StoryMaps offer an immersive storytelling experience that blends rich narrative text with interactive maps and NASA visualizations designed to captivate students. These resources use high-quality multimedia—including images and video— empowering students with the tools to explore complex Earth system processes. Each of the My NASA Data StoryMaps follows the 5E Instructional Model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate), is aligned with NGSS Earth System phenomena, and is ready for "plug and play" use in whole-class instruction, small group rotations, or independent student-led explorations making them a seamless fit for your existing curriculum. Bring Earth system science to your classroom through real world storylines that will engage your students with NASA data relevant to what they are experiencing in their own community.

TAKEAWAYS:
Each of the My NASA Data StoryMaps follow the 5E Instructional Model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate), is aligned with NGSS Earth System phenomena, and is ready for "plug and play" use in whole-class instruction, small group rotations, or independent student-led explorations.

SPEAKERS:
Angela Rizzi, Tina Harte - Ballinger

This poster will present an exploratory qualitative study examining how high school science teachers conceptualize students’ science identities and how these understandings shape their use of the curriculum and instructional decision-making. Although science identity has been widely recognized as important for students’ participation and persistence in STEM, less is known about how teachers define science identity in practice and how these definitions influence how they adapt, evaluate, and enact the curriculum. Drawing on sociocultural theory, particularly figured worlds and teacher sensemaking, this study uses semi-structured interviews with high school science teachers in the greater Seattle area to investigate how teachers imagine who belongs in science and how curriculum can support students’ identity development. Findings will contribute to conversations on identity-supportive teaching, teacher learning, and science curriculum design.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn that supporting science identity is not only about STEM pathways but also about helping students build academic confidence, engage in scientific reasoning, critically question information, and see science as meaningful for their community.

SPEAKERS:
Anqi Zu

The EDP or Engineering Design Process is not just for older students! Any teacher of any class can teach using the EDP as a framework. This interactive poster session will prove it. The poster will allow participants to choose a "lesson" that has been divided into sections and actively connect the sections to the parts of the EDP. This will facilitate valuable conversation and aspects of fun! Blank handouts of the EDP will be available for takeaways in order for partipants to engage themselves in creating their own lesson using the EDP. It's not just simple, it's Elementary!

TAKEAWAYS:
The main takeaway is the Engineering Design Process, and its parts. The poster will feature an interactive portion where participants can choose a "lesson" that has been divided into sections and actively connect the sections to the parts of the EDP aiding valuable conversation and aspects of fun!

SPEAKERS:
Brittany Clark

How do we move beyond traditional assessments to truly measure three-dimensional learning? This poster session explores the differences and connections between Transfer Tasks and Case Studies as high-quality NGSS-aligned assessment strategies. Using agriculture-based phenomena, participants will examine how each approach supports sensemaking, increases cognitive demand, and provides meaningful opportunities for students to apply scientific understanding in real-world contexts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Clear comparison of two high-impact assessment strategies Ready-to-use examples grounded in real-world agricultural contexts

SPEAKERS:
Angela Gulotta, Hannah Wedger

What if the true origin of scientific thinking begins with what students see? In this visually rich, graphic novel–inspired session, discover how Visual Wonder acts as the catalyst for engaging students in Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs). Through compelling imagery and simple, classroom-ready routines, you’ll explore how noticing, questioning, and interpreting visuals can spark curiosity and lead students into authentic investigation and sensemaking. Grounded in NGSS and aligned with a Wonder → Investigation → Sensemaking structure, this session offers practical strategies that are both meaningful for students and manageable for teachers. Walk away with ready-to-use tools that help students think and act like scientists, starting with the power of what they see.

TAKEAWAYS:
Visual Wonder sparks curiosity that leads directly to Science and Engineering Practices. With simple routines, teachers can turn what students see into meaningful investigation and sensemaking, helping them think and act like scientists.

SPEAKERS:
Renee Shaw

This session showcases how a single agricultural anchoring phenomenon can launch and sustain a coherent storyline across a high-quality unit of instruction. Participants will experience a sample lesson from an HQIM genetics unit, focusing on the phenomenon of the influence of genetics and environment on cattle growth over time. Activities include observation of the agricultural phenomenon, developing a driving question board, making student models that support predictions and phenomenon explanations. Teachers will reflect on how anchoring phenomena can be used in their own classrooms and receive access to all unit materials, including how the resources map the phenomenon to NGSS dimensions and teacher moves for student sensemaking.

TAKEAWAYS:
Anchoring phenomena rooted in agriculture topics can spark curiosity and drive coherence across lessons.

SPEAKERS:
Hannah Wedger, Angela Gulotta

Elementary students make sense of the natural world through curiosity, discussion, investigation, and meaningful connections, and children’s literature can play a powerful role in that process. Children’s literature can support science sensemaking and go beyond the traditional read-aloud or topic introduction. Using engaging examples and classroom applications for the PK-2 classroom, this session highlights ways teachers can intentionally integrate literature to spark wonder, support evidence-based discussions, encourage modeling and explanation, and help young children connect science ideas across experiences. Participants will leave with developmentally appropriate strategies, book recommendations, and practical ideas for integrating literacy and science in meaningful and authentic ways.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with practical ideas for moving beyond the traditional read-aloud to create literacy-rich science experiences that deepen curiosity, thinking, and sensemaking in the PK-2 classroom.

SPEAKERS:
Beth Pesnell

How can students design technologies that help communities respond to water challenges while learning the science behind them? In this interactive session, experience how OpenSciEd + Computer Science integrates coding, sensors, and engineering design into a 7th-grade science unit on Earth’s Resources and Human Impact. Step into the role of students as you investigate flooding, drought, and carbon imbalance case studies from communities across the United States using micro:bit devices and sensors to collect and analyze environmental data. See how students explore and modify MakeCode programs as they design technologies to monitor conditions and develop solutions to community water problems. Discover how coding helps students unlock the “black box” of technology, seeing how it works as they build it, while deepening science understanding. Ideal for current OpenSciEd users and those new to the curriculum.

TAKEAWAYS:
Experience how students use coding, sensors, and engineering design to unlock the “black box” of technology while designing solutions to community water challenges through phenomenon-based science learning

SPEAKERS:
Kristy Lathrop

We know that elementary students can make sense of phenomenon but often elementary curriculum materials do not give them to the opportunities to dig deeply and develop rich explanations. In this session, we will explore how we can have learners engage meaningfully with phenomenon, engage in wondering and create questions that inspire awe, design the investigations to answer their own questions, and explain phenomenon using multiple formats. Guided by the recommendations in the Brilliance and Strengths report of 2022, we will engage in advocacy to provide support for finding more time in the elementary day for science learning. We won't leave out literacy as part of the plan. We will share our broad view of literacy in science and examples of high-quality trade books!

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will envision elementary learners' sense making as an asset we can build from to engage young learners in true science (interdisciplinary) learning experiences.

SPEAKERS:
Mary Starr

In addition to the national conferences on science education, NSTA provides year-round in-person, online, and blended personalized professional learning experiences for groups of K–12 educators. This is the ideal formula for best professional learning, as it must be high-quality and on-going. So, what are your PD plans for the teachers in your school or district? Join us to learn what NSTA has to offer. The online option, known as the NSTA Partner Program, provides educators with access to professional learning resources, virtual events, the online community, expert staff, and digital professional membership for all participants. A variety of in-person workshops are available, including OpenSciEd. Presenters will share case studies that are representative of the different professional learning options available. NSTA staff will be available to answer your questions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Education leaders will learn about professional learning opportunities that NSTA offers, delivered online, in-person, and blended that give their teachers the power to personalize their learning as well as the ability to learn with their peers. Some programs include membership for all participants.

SPEAKERS:
Flavio Mendez

The NSTA Sensemaking Tool can help educators be critical consumers of instructional materials and create/revise lessons that reflect the shifts required by new standards (sensemaking). Gain experience using the tool and facilitating criteria-based consensus conversations with your colleagues!

TAKEAWAYS:
Use the NSTA Sensemaking Tool to evaluate instructional materials (lessons) and provide feedback.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Mathews

The science practice of developing and using models supports students in applying crosscutting concepts such as recognizing patterns, making claims about cause and effect, and explaining system changes, to make sense of disciplinary core ideas. This session focuses on designing ‘look-to-learn’ items to guide all students, including learners with varied language and literacy backgrounds, in analyzing visual models from high-content diagrams to simplified comics used as sensemaking prompts. These items can be used at any point in a lesson as group or individual assessments that provide feedback supporting student discussion and explanation revision. Workshop materials include clear examples of look-to-learn items and design rationales, links to effective visuals, and a list of tools to support development. Item types include open-ended, scaffolded performance tasks and closed-ended, multi-modal questions for life & earth sciences, chemistry & astronomy (6-12+, including AP & Onramps).​

TAKEAWAYS:
Expect brief modeling and an overview of materials; spend the workshop collaborating or working solo to design ‘look‑to‑learn’ items (low‑ or ed‑tech) or select from a gallery. Return to your classroom with items that support student sensemaking through structured model analysis.

SPEAKERS:
TeNeal Metcalf

The Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs) are abstract, everywhere, and often overlooked. The good news is that your students are likely already using these powerful conceptual tools every day. Come see how you can make them visible and leverage their power as sensemaking lenses. We developed a straightforward framework to help you build students’ sensemaking skills through use of the CCCs. See how this framework can help you set meaningful learning goals and scaffold students toward success. No matter the curriculum you use, this workshop will help you build student competency using CCCs to make sense of phenomena. Participants will leave with the resources and experience needed to bring CCCs to the foreground of their NGSS classroom. Anchored Science by Mi-STAR is a middle school curriculum project created by teachers in collaboration with engineers and scientists from Michigan Technological University, dedicated to quality NGSS-aligned curriculum and OER resources since 2015.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with a roadmap for building student competencies with the Cross Cutting Concepts as conceptual tools. Attendees will be able to use this roadmap to set meaningful learning goals, scaffold students toward success, and make the CCCs a visible part of their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Tony Matthys

In this hands-on session, participants will explore the science and engineering practice of Developing and Using Models by stepping into the shoes of K–12 learners. Teachers will assume the role of the student as they create, revise, and refine models that represent their own learning and understanding of phenomena. Through this immersive experience, educators will uncover how modeling deepens sensemaking and progresses across grade levels. Participants will leave with ready-to-use modeling routines, templates, and strategies that make student thinking visible. Experience the science and engineering practice of Developing and Using Models from a K–12 student perspective. Create, revise, and refine models to represent their own understanding of phenomena. Explore how modeling supports sensemaking and conceptual progression across grade levels.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will leave with ready-to-use modeling routines, templates, and instructional moves that help students create, revise, and use models to make their thinking visible and build understanding of scientific phenomena across K–12 grade levels

SPEAKERS:
Misty Richmond, Heather Galbreath

The Science of Purification: Hands-On Water Filtration Lab is an engaging STEM activity that allows students to investigate how water can be cleaned through physical filtration methods. Working collaboratively, students design and build their own filtration systems using common materials to remove impurities from contaminated water samples. Throughout the lab, students explore concepts such as mixtures, particle size, engineering design, and environmental science while collecting and analyzing data to improve their models. This interactive experience promotes critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork while helping students understand the importance of clean water access and the real-world applications of science and engineering in water purification systems.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will design and test water filtration systems to explore purification methods, engineering design, and environmental science concepts while developing problem-solving, collaboration, and data analysis skills through a hands-on STEM investigation.

SPEAKERS:
Jonathan Bailey

Step into the role of a forensic toxicologist in this hands-on workshop that bridges the gap between abstract chemical principles and real-world applications. Participants will conduct a "layered" investigation, using both digital instrumentation and wet chemistry to identify "poisons" in simulated biological fluids. We will demonstrate how to integrate conductivity, pH, and spectrophotometry (using Vernier GoDirect sensors) to screen for physical anomalies before proceeding to confirmatory chemical reagent testing. This session focuses on strengthening student sensemaking by connecting the dots among physics (light absorbance), chemistry (oxidation-reduction and acid-base reactions), and career-connected forensic science. Participants will leave with a complete "Lesson Showcase" packet that includes digital templates for data collection, scoring tools, and strategies for adapting this lab to various grade bands and resource constraints.

TAKEAWAYS:
The Integration of Instrumentation and Analysis: By synthesizing data from digital sensors with traditional chemical observations, students develop durable skills in evidence-based reasoning and adaptability. This workshop demonstrates that true scientific literacy isn't confined to a single subject

SPEAKERS:
Diane Vrobel

# The Hunt for the Mill Race Monster: Building Community-Connected Learning with Lovable AI Follow the clues and discover how a local legend became an engaging, cross-curricular learning experience. In this hands-on session, participants will explore how Lovable AI helped transform the story of the Mill Race Monster into a community-connected unit that engaged students while saving teachers valuable planning time. Learn how we partnered with the Columbus Area Arts Council to support and promote a community arts event through our public schools, creating authentic connections between classroom learning and the local community. Participants will see how Lovable AI can generate lessons, projects, communication tools, websites, and student activities in minutes. Attendees will leave with a working AI-created classroom resource, ready-to-use prompts, practical strategies for creating community-based learning experiences, and ideas they can implement immediately in their own classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover how a local legend—the Mill Race Monster—became an engaging cross-curricular learning experience, and learn how Lovable AI can help you transform community stories, events, and partnerships into authentic student learning in minutes.

SPEAKERS:
Lisa HAINES

The Science and Engineering Practices help students show how they question, investigate, model, analyze data, construct explanations, and argue from evidence. In this interactive session, participants will examine traditional science assignments and identify where student thinking may remain invisible. Using the SEPs as a design lens, educators will revise tasks so students must use evidence, make decisions, critique ideas, and explain their reasoning. The session helps participants strengthen existing lessons so student sensemaking remains central, even when students have access to AI tools.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to use the Science and Engineering Practices as a design lens to revise science tasks so student reasoning, evidence use, critique, and sensemaking remain visible, even when students have access to AI.

SPEAKERS:
Velma Itamura

Description Students are increasingly using AI in science classrooms, but using AI does not automatically lead to deeper thinking. This session shares one simple, classroom-ready strategy that uses AI to prompt students to pause and extend their reasoning during scientific tasks. A single prompt can push students to clarify their thinking, identify gaps, and strengthen explanations, supporting NGSS-aligned practices such as analyzing evidence and constructing explanations. This quick, practical move is easy to implement and positions AI as a support for student thinking rather than a source of answers.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn one simple way to use AI to prompt students to pause, extend their thinking, and strengthen scientific explanations during classroom tasks.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle McClanan

This session demonstrates how science methods instructors can leverage an "AI Portfolio" to bridge the gap between AI as a convenience and AI as a cognitive catalyst for pre-service teachers (PSTs). By guiding PSTs through a structured cycle of "Quick Writes" and "AI Interaction Evidence," instructors can challenge students to evaluate the quality of AI-generated outputs against established content and pedagogical knowledge. This process pushes PSTs to go beyond passive consumption, requiring them to generate new knowledge by synthesizing AI suggestions with their own emerging expertise and creativity. Attendees will see how this framework builds essential skills in critical decision-making, as students must explicitly justify why they keep or reject specific AI outputs. Ultimately, this session provides a roadmap for methods instructors to help PSTs refine their professional judgment and develop the durable skills needed to use AI as a sophisticated thought partner in the classroom.

TAKEAWAYS:
A digital checklist and set of reflection guiding questions that can be immediately integrated into university science methods courses to facilitate responsible AI use.

SPEAKERS:
William Thornburgh

Look‑to‑learn items are brief, visual prompts that guide students to analyze models, discuss evidence, and revise explanations during sensemaking lessons. In this speed‑sharing presentation, the presenter will model look‑to‑learn items that use existing diagrams, GIFs, and simplified comics. Participants will see classroom‑ready examples of both open‑ and closed‑ended look‑to‑learn items and learn how these quick scaffolds can be used at multiple points in a lesson. The presenter will also share brief rationales for matching question types to visuals based on the intended performance outcome. Examples are drawn from grades 6–12 science classrooms, including AP Environmental Science and AP Biology, though the underlying principles are broadly transferable.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn practical ways to use visuals—diagrams, GIFs, and comics—as prompts for categorizing, fill‑in‑the‑blank, matching, and sequencing tasks that help students notice patterns, discuss evidence, and revise explanations. Receive a link to a library of classroom‑ready examples with feedback.

SPEAKERS:
TeNeal Metcalf

What if one prompt, added to the end of every lecture, lab, and assignment, could deepen student sensemaking, surface misconceptions before the exam, and build professional identity, all without additional prep or grading? The Teacher Lens does exactly that. Embedded throughout a college biology course for pre-service elementary educators, the prompt asks students to explain each concept to a child in their future classroom. The consistency is the mechanism: students begin to anticipate it and do the cognitive work during instruction rather than only at the end. This session shares three concrete examples showing how the same prompt surfaces different depths of understanding across biology topics, plus one formative use that requires no collecting or grading.

TAKEAWAYS:
A single reusable prompt: "How would you explain this to a student in your future classroom?" that deepens sensemaking, reveals misconceptions, and builds pedagogical thinking across any science course or grade band. Zero new prep required.

SPEAKERS:
Elizabeth Hasenmyer

What if you could build a fully interactive, standards-aligned science skill practice page in under five minutes, no coding required? In this speed session, participants will watch a working web tool built live using Claude's Design and Code feature, starting from a plain-language prompt and ending with a browser-ready page that students can use the same day. The prompt structure demonstrated supports educators in designing a single web page that engages students in developing skills from NGSS Science and Engineering Practices and Cross-Cutting Concepts into any science scenario. Attendees leave with a reusable prompt template card, three grade-band-specific example prompts, and a QR-linked resource page to share with their department. Let's create a simple skill-building scenario, ready before the next bell.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with practical, repeatable methods for turning science skills into an interactive, single-page web experience using AI, enabling faster creation of meaningful, skill-based learning experiences.

SPEAKERS:
Mike Huber

University instructors using NSTA resources, designed for 3-dimensional teaching and learning, in lieu of a textbook (or as a supplement to a textbook) have students who create a library of resources, grow their professional network, and enhance their content and pedagogical knowledge. Instructors get a class landing page to manage their course, a private forum for asynchronous discussions, and an instructor's dashboard to monitor their students' work on the NSTA website. All instructors receive a free NSTA membership, and their students become NSTA members for a year or through graduation. In this session, various instructors share how they integrate NSTA resources in their courses. Come and listen to their stories and ask questions. Find out the benefits of this program so you too begin using NSTA resources with your preservice teachers.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants meet & ask questions of instructors who are using NSTA resources, webinars, & tools in courses for preservice teachers. Participants will learn how to integrate NSTA resources in their courses. They will also learn about the benefits of the program and how it can be easily implemented.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Mathews, Flavio Mendez

Much like the game of football, science teachers need to get their students across the goal line of learning important science concepts with little time to spare. As a science teacher in a busy school environment, the task of reaching all learners is difficult when faced with a diverse student population with various strengths, weaknesses, and diverse backgrounds. To ensure that teachers maximize equity and inclusion of ALL students, low-prep and high-impact lesson strategies are an important component of helping students make sense of the natural world around them, participate in classroom discussions, and ultimately express their understanding of science concepts. This presentation will discuss some key strategies, set in the context of a high school geoscience class, which allow teachers to use and adapt easily based on student needs. An example lesson will be provided to participants, as well as access to the strategies to try out in their classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
The presentation will include an example lesson demonstrating how low-prep, high-impact strategies can be integrated into a geoscience lesson with diverse learners. Teachers will receive access to the instructional tools and resources, which can be adapted based on the needs of their students.

SPEAKERS:
Karen Covil

Educators will explore NGSS-aligned interactive, ready-to-use, digital lessons that support sensemaking. Learn how media-rich lessons can engage students in science and engineering content through a variety of self-paced formats including image hotspots, drawing, or drag-and-drop to involve students in organizing ideas, analyzing data, and building evidence-based explanations. Designed in manageable segments with embedded supports, the lessons promote reasoning, analysis, and discourse, with access for diverse learners. Teachers can flexibly implement interactive lessons within existing units—whole class, group, or independent work—without extra planning. Classroom examples, teacher tips, and student deliverables will be included in this session to help educators integrate these strategies, make student thinking visible, boost engagement, and engage students in meaningful science practices by connecting content to their lives and society.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be able to use and assign a set of free, NGSS-aligned interactive lessons on PBS LearningMedia, that support student sensemaking and discourse while leveraging embedded formative assessments to check for understanding and reduce planning time.

SPEAKERS:
Stefana Dunn

This session focuses on the trilogy of NSTA Press books on the Three Dimensions and is led by NSTA’s former in-house expert on science standards who recruited the lead authors of all three books. Helping Students Make Sense of the World Using Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices provides a play-by-play understanding of the practices. Disciplinary Core Ideas: Reshaping Teaching and Learning provides an in depth perspective on the disciplinary core ideas. Crosscutting Concepts: Strengthening Science and Engineering Learning is designed to help educators grasp the foundational issues that undergird crosscutting concepts. These books are written in clear, nontechnical language. Many of the authors contributed to the development of the Framework and NGSS. The authors also share a wealth of real-world examples drawn from their own classroom experiences to show what’s different about three-dimensional teaching and learning at all grade levels.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn techniques to use these three books to help educators have a deep understanding of practices, core ideas, and crosscutting concepts to foster better student learning in their classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Ted Willard

How can students use technology to investigate weather and climate systems while learning the science behind them? In this interactive session, experience how OpenSciEd + Computer Science integrates coding, sensors, data analysis, and modeling into a middle school science unit on Weather and Climate. Step into the role of students as you investigate hailstorms, severe weather, and unusual climate patterns using digital sensors and simulations to collect and analyze atmospheric data. See how students use coding and computational tools to model how sunlight, gravity, air movement, and water interactions drive weather and climate systems. Discover how coding helps students unlock the “black box” of technology, seeing how it works as they build and revise models, while deepening science understanding. Ideal for current OpenSciEd users and those new to the curriculum.

TAKEAWAYS:
Experience how students use coding, sensors, data analysis, and modeling to unlock the “black box” of technology while investigating weather and climate systems through phenomenon-based science learning

SPEAKERS:
Kristy Lathrop

This session introduces educators to the process of identifying agricultural phenomena and connecting them to NGSS science concepts and emphasizes how to make science instruction more relevant by integrating agriculture as a lens for exploration and inquiry. Participants will engage in hands-on activities including an agriculture phenomena sort, a game designed to evaluate and align examples of agricultural phenomena with the NGSS three dimensions and science standards. Teachers will brainstorm local phenomena and leave with tools like a phenomena checklist and a ready-to-use list of agricultural phenomena that can be used across disciplines.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers leave with tools to identify and incorporate agricultural phenomena that are observable, puzzling, and connected to NGSS three dimensions.

SPEAKERS:
Hannah Wedger, Angela Gulotta

The NSTA Sensemaking Tool can help educators be critical consumers of instructional materials and create/revise lessons that reflect the shifts required by new standards (sensemaking). Gain experience using the tool and facilitating criteria-based consensus conversations with your colleagues!

TAKEAWAYS:
Use the NSTA Sensemaking Tool to evaluate instructional materials (lessons) and provide feedback.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Mathews

What happens when young learners are invited to notice first and explain later? This session challenges PK–2 educators to reimagine science instruction by stepping outside—literally—and embracing a phenomena-based, inquiry-driven approach that nurtures curiosity, sensemaking, and a lasting connection to the natural world. Through practical examples, we’ll share strategies for lesson design, integrating STEM and literacy, and using themes like birds or trees to build connections. Learn how to overcome barriers, use available space and resources, and embrace “messy” science without needing all the answers. Leave with simple, adaptable ideas, increased confidence, and a clear message: meaningful science learning can happen anywhere—starting just outside your door.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn to use curiosity and everyday outdoor spaces to drive phenomenon-based, inquiry science. You’ll gain practical, easy-to-apply strategies, integrate STEM and literacy, build confidence, and leave thinking, “I can do this.”

SPEAKERS:
Joel Eichenauer, Susan Gnagy

Learning in Places supports all elementary learners, their families, communities, and educators in creating relationships with the outdoors. Join us to learn more about how to effectively engage learners in identifying important phenomenon in their place, creating Should We questions, answering them through inquiry experiences students design, and designing models that help support developing understanding. Ultimately, Learning in Places advances change making and decision making as durable skills but through the lens of science exploration, transdisciplinary learning, and explanation of relationships with phenomenon. We will explore a storyline and some of the critical pieces of this amazing education resource.

TAKEAWAYS:
Educators will explore Learning in Places and learn more about how transdisciplinary explorations by elementary students elevate decision making and change making in their community.

SPEAKERS:
Jordan Sherry-Wagner, Mary Starr

How can we safeguard future scientists against automation bias, cognitive offloading, and scientific slop? The SIFT (Stop-Investigate-Find-Trace) framework is a learner-focused procedural approach for assessing the contributions of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a partner in the context of inquiry science. Phase 1 emphasizes literacy as students develop a method for critically evaluating their own use of AI, a model’s reliability, and the viability of the output. In Phase 2, they broaden their critical lens to assess output in regards to its validity within the field: Is it accurate? Does it align with current scientific consensus? What might it be overlooking or excluding?

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will be able to scaffold AI-enhanced lesson plans with an active learning process that develops a student’s habit of a routine critical evaluation of collaborative AI in the context of accuracy, usefulness, and suitability.

SPEAKERS:
Laura Yost

This session highlights practical, classroom-ready strategies for strengthening three-dimensional sensemaking in high school science courses, with an intentional focus on courses with heavy content standards (e.g. honors and AP classes). Participants will engage with coherent lesson sequences that intentionally integrate DCI's, SEP's and CCC's through anchoring phenomena and the use of student voice. Concrete examples of instructional routines, assessment tasks and student work samples will demonstrate how to make student thinking visible and actionable. Emphasis will be placed on designing and using assessments that capture evidence of reasoning, model development and evidence-based explanation, while informing real-time instructional decisions. Attendees will explore adaptable templates, scoring tools, and planning protocols aligned to typical classroom constraints, ensuring feasibility without increasing workload.

TAKEAWAYS:
Explore instructional shifts that can be implemented immediately in your high school classroom. Participants will leave with small, practical adjustments to lesson planning that allow student voice to drive instruction while still addressing rigorous, content-heavy standards.

SPEAKERS:
Matthew Bulman

Scientific sensemaking requires students to question claims, evaluate evidence, revise ideas, and defend decisions. In this interactive session, participants will explore how AI can be positioned as a reasoning partner within SEP-based classroom routines. Rather than treating AI as an answer source, educators will consider how structured routines can prompt students to analyze information, test claims against evidence, identify gaps in reasoning, revise ideas, and explain their decisions. Participants will examine adaptable routine structures and consider how they could support purposeful AI use, productive struggle, and evidence-based discussion in their own science classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to facilitate SEP-based classroom routines that position AI as a reasoning partner while keeping students responsible for evidence, critique, revision, and sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Velma Itamura

When students have access to AI, a polished final product may not provide enough evidence of what they understand. This interactive session helps educators use the Science and Engineering Practices to identify what student reasoning should look like and how it can be assessed. Participants will explore how different types of student work, discussion, revision, and explanation can provide evidence of reasoning when tasks are designed around the Science and Engineering Practices. The session focuses on designing assessment approaches that value evidence use, critique, revision, explanation, argumentation, and decision-making in science learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to use the Science and Engineering Practices to identify and assess evidence of student thinking, critique, revision, and reasoning defense in AI-resilient science learning.

SPEAKERS:
Velma Itamura

Learn how to use the Uncovering Student Ideas probes in an explore-before-explain instructional sequence to support a classroom where all students' ideas matter!

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn about a new NSTA press resource for formative assessment and explore-before-explain teaching.

SPEAKERS:
Patrick Brown

How can students design technologies that measure and reduce damage from collisions while learning the science behind contact forces? In this interactive session, experience how OpenSciEd + Computer Science integrates coding, sensors, and engineering design into a middle school science unit on Contact Forces. Step into the role of students as you investigate why some collisions cause damage while others do not, using sensor systems to collect and analyze force data. See how students design and program technologies that measure forces and help minimize damage from collisions. Discover how coding helps students unlock the “black box” of technology, seeing how it works as they build it, while deepening science understanding. Ideal for current OpenSciEd users and those new to the curriculum.

TAKEAWAYS:
Experience how students use coding, sensors, and engineering design to unlock the “black box” of technology while designing solutions to measure and reduce damage from collisions through phenomenon-based science learning

SPEAKERS:
Kristy Lathrop

This presentation will explore how Formative Instructional Practices (FIP) can transform classroom instruction. FIP is a research-based approach that emphasizes continuous feedback, student involvement, and clear learning goals to improve academic achievement. The goal of this session is to equip educators with practical strategies to implement FIP effectively, helping students take ownership of their learning while enabling teachers to make informed instructional decisions. FIPs are not new, but when used consistently, they can be a game-changer in classrooms. This presentation will begin by reviewing the core principles of FIP, including the importance of setting clear learning targets, using descriptive feedback, involving students in the learning process, and adjusting instruction based on evidence of student understanding. Participants will reflect on their current practices and identify opportunities to integrate FIP more deeply into their teaching routines.

TAKEAWAYS:
This session delivers formative instructional practices (FIPs) that are easy to implement, but will make a big difference. Participants will walk away with a cache of strategies that elevate student learning and engagement without adding extra work to their plates.

SPEAKERS:
Mesa Davis

Driving Question: How do environmental conditions influence plant growth? This hands-on workshop demonstrates how to use plant processes to investigate how environmental conditions influence plant growth through a three-dimensional model aligned to NGSS (e.g., HS-LS1-5). Participants will engage in a classroom-ready activity manipulating variables such as light and temperature, collecting and analyzing data, and interpreting a sample dataset to construct evidence-based explanations using a Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) framework to determine the cause and effect relationship between environmental factors and plant growth. The session emphasizes coherence across curriculum, instruction, and assessment by aligning learning goals, inquiry-based investigation, and CER assessment to make student thinking visible. Attendees will explore how disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts support sensemaking. Strategies for diverse learners, including s

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to implement a coherent, three-dimensional lesson using plant investigations and CER to support student sensemaking and explain how environmental conditions influence plant growth.

SPEAKERS:
Macon Beck

Experience how leveraging complex culturally relevant societal challenges as phenomena in 3D teaching and learning supports student motivation and engagement and develops student agency within and beyond the classroom! The Framework for K-12 Science Education and NGSS call for learning grounded in real world phenomena and problems to ensure that science learning is relevant to all students. The AIL instructional model succeeds the 5Es and utilizes complex and culturally relevant societal challenges to anchor multiple cycles of inquiry and sensemaking, culminating with student explanations/design solutions. AIL employs science education research emphasizing coherence from students’ perspective. In this session, participants will 1) consider their own ideas about teaching complex societal challenges, 2) experience 3D learning, and 3) consider the science concepts of a societal challenge (antibiotic resistance, heart disease, food sustainability, anthropogenic changes to biodiversity).

TAKEAWAYS:
The research-based BSCS Anchored Inquiry Learning instructional model succeeds the 5Es and leverages complex societal issues as anchoring phenomena/problems, culminating tasks, and performance assessments in 3D units of instruction to motivate students and develop agency in addressing these issues.

SPEAKERS:
Cynthia Gay

The STEM workforce is changing. From facilities in Indiana to global tech hubs in Asia, companies now use Physical AI (intelligence built into physical tools like sensors) and Agentic AI (systems that can finish multi-step tasks on their own). This session shows how science and engineering are evolving. We demonstrate how teachers can use these technologies to prepare for and teach in class by incorporating low-cost pocket computers and sensors. Physical and Agentic AI can help teachers align lessons to NGSS Science and Engineering Practices, improve skills, and make sense of student lab data more quickly. This allows for better instructional choices and helps teachers give more helpful feedback. Integrating these tools into a structured science classroom can level the playing field for all students. By the end of this session, you will see how robust science education paired with AI—not just technology for its own sake—prepares every student to lead and innovate in modern careers.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will receive an Advanced AI Science & Engineering Education Toolkit that shows how to use Physical and Agentic AI to make planning smoother, lab feedback easier, and improve decision-making while helping students learn the skills needed for modern science and engineering careers.

SPEAKERS:
Naeem Turner-Bandele, PhD

How can students use technology to investigate how sound is produced, detected, and modified while learning the science behind sound systems? In this interactive session, experience how OpenSciEd + Computer Science integrates coding, sensors, data analysis, and modeling into a middle school science unit on Sound Waves. Step into the role of students as you investigate how sound causes things to move using micro:bits and digital tools to collect and analyze wave data. See how students modify MakeCode programs to synthesize sounds, analyze wave patterns, and explore how sound technologies work. Discover how coding helps students unlock the “black box” of technology, seeing how it works as they build and modify sound-based systems, while deepening science understanding. Ideal for current OpenSciEd users and those new to the curriculum.

TAKEAWAYS:
Experience how students use coding, sensors, and sound technologies to unlock the “black box” of technology while investigating how sound is produced, detected, modified, and used in the world around us

SPEAKERS:
Kristy Lathrop

Across STEM education, there is a growing push to move beyond isolated disciplines toward learning that reflects the complexity of real-world challenges. This session shares insights from co-design work between Boston University’s Center for STEM Professional Learning at Scale and Vivayic focused on developing convergence professional learning pathways and impact networks. Participants will explore how to design transdisciplinary, phenomenon-based learning grounded in real problems and local contexts. Through examples from pathway design and facilitation, the session highlights strategies such as systems mapping, stakeholder mapping, and collaborative routines that help make sense of complex problems. Attendees will also examine how convergence approaches and networks of educators and organizations can break down silos and support scalable approaches that foster systems thinking, agency, and equitable participation.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how convergence-based professional learning can support educators in designing learning experiences that help students make sense of complex, real-world problems across disciplines and leverage community assets.

SPEAKERS:
Craig Rebich, Brian Beierle

This session focuses on building authentic assessments tied to agricultural phenomena. Teachers will role-play a condensed transfer task centering around a relevant agricultural phenomenon, analyze its components, and discuss the potential design of their own using a provided template. The session emphasizes how transfer tasks connect classroom learning to real-world challenges, encouraging students to apply science concepts meaningfully. Participants will leave with a blank and sample template to use in their own instructional setting.

TAKEAWAYS:
Agricultural transfer tasks give students authentic assessment opportunities where they can apply their science learning.

SPEAKERS:
Angela Gulotta, Hannah Wedger

This session explores how the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) can serve as a powerful foundation for helping students connect phenomena-driven learning to high-skill, high-wage, in-demand careers. This session will offer practical insights into the current postsecondary and workforce landscape and demonstrate how career-connected learning can increase student engagement by making science more relevant and purposeful.

TAKEAWAYS:
Using state science standards as a foundation for career connected learning helps students see science as purposeful and relevant by directly linking science content and application to in-demand career pathways boosting both engagement and motivation.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker

In this session, I will share classroom tested ideas aligned to the Indiana Science Academic standards along with principles of the Science of Reading. I will show how to incorporate science topics, using a variety of children's literature and integrate comprehension, phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, and vocabulary. Lessons will include several from the Picture Perfect Science series (NSTA Press text) along with other science related children's literature. Participants will receive access to digital copies of children's literature titles along with brief activity examples. To engage attendees during the session, participants will have the opportunity to try out many of the hands-on activities that are shared and leave with at least one example to remind them of the activity. The children's literature will cover all areas of science as well as STEM and will include a diverse group of scientists represented within them.

TAKEAWAYS:
Short on science teaching time?? In this session you will find out how to integrate children's literature that focuses on science into your other content areas. During this session, attendees will hear about classroom tested lessons that help them integrate science content throughout their school

SPEAKERS:
Kristen Poindexter

In this session, participants will learn about the NSTA Best STEM books and how they are selected. They will dive into the SEPs and examine how they are portrayed in the books. They will also take advantage of opportunities to examine how each book models the SEPs, improving their ability to identify and apply them throughout the book. The books selected will be from previous BSB lists.

TAKEAWAYS:
Teachers will learn to utilize the Best STEM Books to teach the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs).

SPEAKERS:
Simone Nance, Kimberly Berry, Christine Anne Royce, J Carrie Launius

Who's the parent? Who's the offspring? In first grade, students learn that "young plants and animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents." In this workshop, the presenter will share the activities he leads so that his first graders make this discovery for themselves. By engaging in various picture matching exercises, a shared family traits homework assignment, and an aliens' family tree assessment, the presenter will show how he teaches the concept of inherited traits in fun, kid-friendly way.

TAKEAWAYS:
Children may have heard that they have their moms eyes and their dad's nose because they are a mix of traits and physical features that they have inherited from their mom and dad. People in families might look alike, but they can also be different. These differences are an important part of life.

SPEAKERS:
Cezar Simeon

Many educators are asking how to integrate AI into science classrooms without sacrificing critical thinking or meaningful learning. This interactive session shares an emerging framework for integrating AI literacy and AI applications into science instruction. Using examples from OpenSciEd’s Biology + AI development project, participants will experience student-facing AI routines, decision-making tools, and structured prompts that help students use AI purposefully and critically evaluate its outputs. Grounded in science education research, the framework supports three-dimensional sensemaking and student reasoning and can be adapted across science disciplines or grades. Whether you teach with OpenSciEd or another science curriculum, you'll leave with practical strategies for meaningful AI integration.

TAKEAWAYS:
Experience practical routines, prompts, and decision-making tools that help students use AI purposefully, critically evaluate AI outputs, and deepen science sensemaking without replacing student thinking.

SPEAKERS:
Kristy Lathrop

This session provides a deep dive into a phenomenon-driven chemistry unit centered on climate change. Participants will experience how a full unit can be built around the question: “How do we use chemistry to help solve the climate crisis in a fair way as a global community?” The unit uses fossil fuel combustion, ice core data, and greenhouse gas chemistry phenomena to teach mole conversions. stoichiometry, limiting reactants, percent composition, and molecular structure. Participants will engage with student-facing materials, data sets, and modeling tasks that connect chemical equations to real-world climate impacts. A key focus of the session is integrating climate justice into chemistry instruction by examining how emissions, energy systems, and environmental harm are distributed unevenly across populations. Participants will leave with a fully mapped unit storyline, assessment ideas, and instructional routines for supporting student sensemaking.

TAKEAWAYS:
We will explore how we can use molecular-level explanations to support student climate reasoning, allowing students to integrate climate justice and equity considerations into chemistry-based solutions.

SPEAKERS:
Christine Gustafson

Students are increasingly using AI in science classrooms, but using AI does not always lead to deeper thinking. This workshop focuses on how teachers can design classroom tasks that use AI to support, rather than replace, scientific reasoning. After a brief introduction, participants will work through example tasks from a student perspective and examine how specific prompts can push thinking, reveal gaps, and strengthen explanations. Grounded in NGSS practices, this session emphasizes analyzing evidence and constructing explanations. Participants will leave with practical strategies and a clear structure for designing tasks that position AI as a tool for thinking.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to design classroom tasks that use AI to prompt deeper thinking and strengthen evidence-based scientific reasoning.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle McClanan

Students often wonder how the science they learn in class connects to life beyond school. This session tackles that question by showcasing practical strategies for bridging core science instruction with Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways and career applications. Participants will explore how phenomena-driven, three-dimensional science learning naturally aligns with the skills and knowledge used in engineering, health sciences, technology fields, agriculture, and more.

TAKEAWAYS:
Through examples, discussion, and ready-to-use ideas, attendees will discover how to help students see the relevance of scientific thinking in authentic career contexts.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker

Why does food in a solar cooker end up overcooked, undercooked, or just right? In this session, educators will explore the juicy nuggets inside the Class CrunchLabs Solar Cook-Off unit that help students make sense of energy transfer, particle motion, temperature, and thermal energy. Through hands-on investigations, modeling routines, discussion strategies, and classroom-ready teacher supports, participants will experience how students build explanations for how and why different foods cook differently in solar cookers. We will highlight the embedded tools, prompts, and sensemaking routines that support three-dimensional learning and student-driven investigation. Whether students are testing reflectors, comparing what factors affect how materials heat up, or debating how energy moves through a system, attendees will leave with practical strategies and engaging ideas they can immediately bring into their classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover classroom-ready strategies and tools that help students investigate thermal energy transfer and explain why different foods cook differently in solar cookers.

SPEAKERS:
Spencer Martin

Have you struggled keeping up with Driving Question Board and Consensus Model using only sticky notes and chart paper? What do you do if you have multiple biology sessions, but you DON'T want your other classes to see what previous classes came up with earlier? Do you struggle with creating "organized" models/driving question boards? Do you struggle with helping students keep up with their personal glossary protocols? Join me as I go over how I use instructional technology to make the sense-making process more smooth, interactive, and visible to ALL students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn to use instructional technology platforms such as Canva whiteboard to enhance the sensemaking process for students.

SPEAKERS:
Alicia Choi

The NGSS and other standards based on the Framework of K-12 Education are quite complicated and often tricky to interpret. What teachers need is an easy-to-use reference guide to the standards, and since its’ release in 2014, the NSTA Quick-Reference Guide (aka The Purple Book) has become a perennial bestseller and an essential reference tool for many educators across the country. A new version of the Quick-Reference Guide was released in 2022, specifically designed to support not only NGSS, but all standards based on the Framework. This session will review the features of the Quick-Reference Guide and show how to use various tools in the guide to unpack the crosscutting concepts. Crosscutting concepts (CCCs) are ideas such as patterns, cause and effect, and systems that are not unique to any one discipline but that cut across several disciplines. By better understanding the CCCs, students are better prepared to make sense of the phenomena they see in the world about them.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to unpack the three dimensions using the tools and resources in the Quick-Reference Guide and will gain insights into the meaning of the crosscutting concepts.

SPEAKERS:
Ted Willard

This session pulls back the curtain on the NSTA/CBC Best STEM Book award, examining the selection process and how titles can anchor complex, three-dimensional learning. Participants will first explore the committee's specific criteria, looking beyond standard narratives to identify books that authentically model the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) and the iterative nature of design. In a hands-on workshop format, you will act as a committee member to evaluate a variety of high-quality trade books. Can you identify which titles meet the "Best STEM" threshold and which fall short? We will analyze how these books highlight real-world problem-solving and divergent thinking. Finally, we will demonstrate how to move beyond "read-alouds" by using these books as catalysts for these practices. You will leave with instructional strategies and ideas for support materials to help students engage with complex content through the lens of award-winning STEM literature.

TAKEAWAYS:
Go beyond read-alouds by learning how the NSTA/CBC committee selects Best STEM Books. Evaluate titles using the Science and Engineering Practices to anchor three-dimensional learning. You'll leave with strategies to integrate these books into instruction, making the practices come alive for students

SPEAKERS:
Simone Nance, Elizabeth (Betsy) O'Day, Christine Anne Royce, J Carrie Launius

Get ready to channel your inner builder. In this 2-hour session, you will learn how to teach the kinetic energy hands-on classroom challenges created by the CrunchLabs toy engineers, the same crew behind some of Mark Rober’s most memorable builds. These challenges are more than just fun. They power deeper science understanding and give students the chance to design, test, and think like engineers. We will walk through how to launch a challenge, organize your space, support student testing, and help learners reflect on what they discovered. You will leave with practical strategies to keep the mess under control, the ideas flowing, and the energy high.

TAKEAWAYS:
Get practical strategies for setting up and running CrunchLabs classroom challenges. These hands-on experiences build student confidence, creativity, and sensemaking skills.

SPEAKERS:
Spencer Martin

Simulations and games have shown great promise in science education, increasing students' scientific reasoning, enhancing motivation, and reducing cognitive load. However, teachers have been relying on developers to offer a fixed set of simulations or games. With the emergence of AI coding tools such as Claude Code (CC), teachers and students can now design simulations and games tailored to their own needs and interests. With coding no longer a barrier, mathematical and scientific principles can be harnessed to create something teachers and students are passionate about. We start with a 15 min intro to CC with a demonstration of a simulation and a game developed by a nonprofessional coder. The next 15 min, teachers brainstorm a game or simulation supporting phenomenon sense-making. The remaining time is dedicated to implementation using CC on six provided computers with CC pre-installed. We close with a 5-minute wrap and will provide resources including an installation guide and a proc

TAKEAWAYS:
Familiarizing oneself with simulation and gaming possibilities one can create for their class on CC with alignment to NGSS and 3D learning. Understanding the current limitations of the tool, such as computational power and working memory. Awareness of the ethical aspects of using CC.

SPEAKERS:
Ella Yonai, Emanuel Eidin

The first law of ecology is that “everything is related to everything else.” Understanding connections in nature can help elementary students explore how people’s actions shape the Earth’s landscapes and affect ecosystems in our own backyards and across the globe. In this hands-on session, explore engaging, interdisciplinary activities that connect core science concepts with math, literacy, and real-world decision-making. Through an interactive story, 3D modeling, concept mapping and simple data investigations, students examine ecosystem interactions, resource use, and climate impacts while developing skills in reasoning, communication, and problem solving. Activities encourage students to apply what they learn across contexts – whether analyzing food webs, modeling Earth’s limited resources, or exploring carbon use in everyday life. All activities align with NGSS, especially the Disciplinary Core Idea, Earth and Human Activity.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with a set of integrated lessons that connect science, math, and literacy, helping students apply their learning to real-world environmental questions through hands-on exploration and discussion.

SPEAKERS:
Simone Nance, Jeff Thomas

How can chemistry feel more relevant, coherent, and connected to the real world across an entire course? In this session, participants will explore a year-long chemistry course redesigned around Earth and Space Science phenomena anchored in NGSS storylines. Rather than treating chemistry as a sequence of isolated units, this approach uses compelling phenomena—such as climate change, stellar life-cycles, geomorphology, and water quality—as the driving narrative structure for learning. Participants will experience how chemistry content standards can be purposefully embedded into Earth and Space Science contexts to build coherence and deepen conceptual understanding. We will also examine how storylines support student sensemaking, increase engagement, and create authentic opportunities for modeling and explanation.

TAKEAWAYS:
We will explore how the use of Earth & Space phenomena make the abstract world of chemistry more visible and equitable for students.

SPEAKERS:
Christine Gustafson

ndigenous practices of sustainability provide powerful entry points for teaching K–12 students about climate change. These traditions emphasize long-term relationships with the land, cycles of renewal, and reciprocity between people and ecosystems. By examining practices such as seasonal harvesting, controlled burns, rotational planting, and respect for biodiversity, students see concrete examples of how communities have lived in balance with their environments for generations. These practices highlight the importance of observing natural patterns, valuing interdependence, and considering the impact of decisions on future generations. In the classroom, Indigenous perspectives can help students move beyond seeing climate change as abstract science toward understanding it as a lived reality that requires responsibility and care. This approach not only deepens ecological literacy but also encourages students to think critically about sustainability solutions.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how Indigenous sustainability practices can enrich climate change teaching, gaining practical strategies supported by handouts and classroom case studies to integrate cultural and scientific perspectives into K–12 learning.

SPEAKERS:
Jim McDonald

Enacting the NGSS using high-quality instructional materials requires support as teachers take on the corresponding shifts in practice, potentially significant shifts. Sometimes when leading this kind of significant change, you get more than resistance–you get conflict. Dig into Change Management as one critical element curriculum based professional learning to help manage conflict. Whether connecting with us anew or continuing your learning from the Leaders Institute, join BSCS Science Learning to **consider your experiences with leading change, encountering resistance, and managing conflict alongside other leaders,, **consider different sources of conflict and strategies for managing conflict, and **practice one strategy for managing yourself during conflict.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn to identify different sources of conflict, consider strategies for managing conflict, and practice a key strategy to manage yourself during conflict.

SPEAKERS:
Jody Bintz

This session explores how graphical representations can be leveraged to develop elementary students’ understanding of Scale, Proportion, and Quantity, one of the NGSS Crosscutting Concepts. Using examples from OpenSciEd Grade 5 Earth in the Universe, participants will examine how students use standard units of measure, data displays, number lines, and comparative models to make sense of patterns in the Sun, Moon, and stars. Attendees will explore the role of graphical representations in helping students make sense of patterns and relationships across scales that are otherwise difficult to observe directly. Participants will leave with practical strategies for leveraging graphical representations and digital tools to support student sensemaking, develop Scale, Proportion, and Quantity thinking, and deepen understanding of Earth and space science phenomena.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how graphical representations can make otherwise inaccessible Earth and space science phenomena observable, helping elementary students develop Scale, Proportion, and Quantity thinking while making sense of patterns in the Sun, Moon, and stars.

SPEAKERS:
Jacob Noll

Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers bring powerful real-world expertise, but too often, their work sits apart from core science instruction. This session focuses on putting PLCs together so teachers from science and CTE can strategically align units with their disciplines, creating opportunities for authentic, applied learning that benefits both students and teachers. Participants will explore a framework for identifying natural connections between NGSS science domains and CTE pathways, such as welding with physical science, health careers with life science, agriculture with earth and environmental science, and engineering with physical and mathematical modeling. Attendees will learn how collaborative planning between science and CTE educators can result in lessons and projects that meaningfully incorporate scientific ideas and technical applications.

TAKEAWAYS:
Through examples, planning tools, and shared experiences, participants will leave with strategies for matching CTE expertise to the science content where it naturally fits and designing instruction that blends scientific sensemaking with hands-on technical skills.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker

How do we move students from "checked out" to "self-directed" without adding hours of prep? This session introduces classroom-tested, high-leverage routines that build student self-efficacy and grit through the lens of John Hattie’s Visible Learning research. Participants will explore low-prep strategies to foster Collective Efficacy and Teacher Credibility, turning the "space of struggle" into a launchpad for success. We will examine common "grit-robbers" and replace them with adaptable structures for meaningful feedback and stronger classroom cohesion. Attendees will leave with a practical toolkit of routines that strengthen sensemaking and resilient learning, shifting the focus from fixing students to optimizing the environment to support science practices.

TAKEAWAYS:
Implement high-leverage routines that foster student agency and collective efficacy. Leave with a low-prep toolkit to transform classroom 'struggle' into productive grit, using evidence-based strategies that boost engagement and sensemaking without increasing your workload.

SPEAKERS:
Jeff Anderson, Christina Sladek, Scott Albright

Wondering where familiar chemistry topics like naming compounds, stoichiometry, and gas laws fit into OpenSciEd High School Chemistry? In this interactive session, participants will explore how and why these traditional topics are woven into OpenSciEd's five chemistry units in ways that maintain rigor while supporting student sensemaking. Through examples from across the course, participants will examine how concepts such as atomic structure, the Periodic Table, acids and bases, and the mole are integrated into coherent storylines that preserve students' "aha" moments. For example, students develop models of ions and polar molecules to explain phenomena such as lightning before using atomic models to explain bonding. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of how OpenSciEd blends essential chemistry content with engaging, phenomenon-driven learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover how "traditional" chemistry topics are incorporated into OpenSciEd High School Chemistry storylines without giving away students' aha moments and still mantaining rigor.

SPEAKERS:
Kristy Lathrop

Every Place Runs on Science is a place-based NGSS model that helps teachers turn local environments into meaningful science learning experiences. Instead of starting with a textbook, this approach begins with real places and phenomena, allowing students to investigate the science happening in their own communities. Each location serves as a ready-to-use lesson anchor that includes a short explanation of the science, NGSS alignment across grade bands, and practical classroom ideas. The model integrates AI and digital tools to support research, data analysis, and student-driven inquiry. Students can explore their own interests by creating and contributing new place-based entries, making the learning scalable and personalized. This approach supports three-dimensional learning by connecting practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas through real-world systems, while also building relevance, engagement, and connections to culture and community.

TAKEAWAYS:
Start with place, not the textbook. When students investigate real locations and phenomena, science becomes relevant, engaging, and meaningful. Using NGSS, AI tools, and student-driven inquiry, this model helps learners explore their world and discover that science is already all around them.

SPEAKERS:
Chelsea Lucas

Distinguishing observation from inference is a persistent conceptual barrier for preservice elementary teachers, hindering their capacity to teach science as inquiry. This poster explores a study that engaged preservice teachers in creating initial models of novel phenomena (e.g., a marshmallow in a vacuum, a chemical reaction, and a moving toy train). Using a two-part modeling tool, 23 participants documented observations and represented inferences through writing and drawing. The poster will visually display findings revealing a distinct rhetorical shift. Observations rely on definitive language and sequential visual narratives, while inferences employ tentative language and symbolic visual arguments to explain unseen mechanisms. Attendees will view qualitative examples from student artifacts to see these differences firsthand.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will explore a practical modeling tool to help preservice teachers distinguish observation from inference. The poster provides a framework to analyze how drawn and written models reveal the shift from describing the visible to explaining unseen mechanisms.

SPEAKERS:
Jaclyn Murray, Alex St. Louis, Kelly Feille

This interactive poster session showcases Pop-Up Science Sparks, a collection of low-cost, interactive science experiences designed to encourage observation, questioning, conversation, and sensemaking in elementary and informal learning spaces. Attendees will explore examples of portable, hands-on exhibits, examine student-facing “Try This” prompts, and discuss how simple materials can support curiosity-driven science learning. The session highlights practical ways teachers can create engaging science experiences without expensive equipment while still supporting scientific practices such as noticing patterns, testing ideas, modeling, and collaborative discussion. Examples may include a human kaleidoscope, balancing ball, Newton’s cradle, magnetic field exploration, and other adaptable interactive displays for classrooms, libraries, STEM nights, and hallway learning spaces.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with practical design principles for creating low-cost interactive science experiences that invite student exploration, talk, and sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Alexis Markavage

Do you teach preservice teachers? Learn how NSTA's resources, webinars, and online community can help students become the BEST teachers they can be. Instructors using NSTA in lieu of a textbook (or as a supplement to a textbook) have students who create a library of resources, grow their professional network, and enhance their content and pedagogical knowledge. Instructors get a class landing page to manage their course, a private forum for asynchronous discussions, and an instructor's dashboard to monitor students' work. All instructors receive a free digital professional membership, and their students become NSTA members for a year or through graduation, depending on the price point selected by the instructor. Resources include all NSTA-member resources, like lesson plans (sensemaking tasks) and journal articles, and “add-on” resources, such as Interactive E-Books+ Professional and Professional Learning Units (teaching strategies that enrich students’ learning). Bring your computer.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants walk away ready to implement a program through which they “adopt” NSTA as their textbook for a course, allowing their preservice teachers to access a variety of high-quality professional learning resources, including some resources that are not part of NSTA’s regular student membership.

SPEAKERS:
Emily Mathews, Flavio Mendez

The Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) of the Next Generation Science Standards already mirror many of the skills employers value most: problem-solving, collaboration, communication, and iterative design. This session explores how intentionally pairing the SEPs with Career Readiness Competencies can help students build transferable workforce skills while engaging in authentic science learning. Participants will examine classroom examples and instructional strategies that make these connections explicit, allowing students to practice thinking and working like scientists and engineers while developing skills essential for college, careers, and the modern workforce.

TAKEAWAYS:
When the Science and Engineering Practices are intentionally aligned with Career Readiness Competencies, everyday science instruction becomes a powerful way for students to develop real, transferable workforce skills without adding “one more thing” to the curriculum.

SPEAKERS:
Kristin Rademaker

Scientists at Institute for Systems Biology have been using AI and Machine Learning (ML) to analyze complex systems biology datasets for many years. As such, we developed an interactive lesson that guides high school students through how, why, and when ML can be used. These step-by-step free resources were built for non-computer science teachers using a heart-health dataset. We believe all people should understand, and be able to use, the process of ML to make sense of data, especially life science data. In this workshop, we will give a quick overview of the lesson and will share all curricular materials so that attendees can try the activities as students would. We’ll work through the correlations portion of the lesson with plenty of time for questions and technical assistance. We’ll then give an overview of the logistic regression and applications portions of the lesson. We will focus on having all teachers leave with the links, skills & confidence to bring this to their students.

TAKEAWAYS:
Machine learning is a subset of AI and is easy to comprehend when you guide “learning” using a spreadsheet to analyze an interesting dataset. You can use our step-by-step resources to guide your students through this lesson and then watch as they apply their learning to other data sets of interest.

SPEAKERS:
Claudia Ludwig

When runaway trucks enter the classroom, they bring the kind of chaos, danger, and mayhem that immediately makes students want to figure out how something so massive and fast can actually be stopped. The juicy nuggets in this unit help students uncover the science behind those ideas.This session helps you uncover key features in the Rocks vs Big Rigs unit that make it easier to plan, teach, and guide students through puzzling questions like: How can tiny pieces of gravel stop huge semis? And why are faster trucks harder to stop than heavier ones? We will walk through the built-in teacher tools, prompts, and routines that support deep thinking and epic classroom moments. Whether students are testing mini rigs of different weights on ramps or sending trucks crashing into rice beds, you’ll leave with ready-to-use moves that help the learning stick.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover classroom-ready tools that help students explore kinetic energy and investigate what makes some things harder to stop than others.

SPEAKERS:
Spencer Martin

This workshop incorporates principles of student-driven science notebooking with practical realistic applications for today’s science classrooms. Building on the ideas and strategies in Jessica Fries-Gaither’s NSTA Press publication, Science Notebooks in Student-Centered Classroom, participants will discover how using notebooks increases student engagement and ownership when attempting to make sense of a phenomenon using the three-dimensions. Participants will experience authentic notebooking from the student perspective in either K-4 or 5-8 grade bands, connect their experiences to Jessica’s four principles of student-centered science notebooks, and apply these ideas by incorporating science notebook principles and strategies to a lesson/unit of their own choosing. This session will demonstrate how well-selected science notebook scaffolds that are removed over time help students gain confidence and motivation to use notebooks as authentic sensemaking tools.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with a science notebook of their own that contains strategies, scaffolds, and organizational structures that increase realistic use of student-centered science notebooks as sensemaking tools.

SPEAKERS:
Kristen Moorhead, Jessica Fries-Gaither

Wondering where familiar biology topics like cell structure, genetics, and photosynthesis fit into OpenSciEd High School Biology? In this interactive session, participants will explore how and why these traditional topics are thoughtfully woven into OpenSciEd's five biology units. Through examples from across the course, participants will examine how concepts such as ecosystems, evolution, human body systems, and molecular biology are integrated into coherent storylines that support student sensemaking while maintaining rigor. Along the way, participants will reflect on the instructional design decisions behind these storylines and consider how similar approaches might be adapted to their own contexts. Educators will leave with a deeper understanding of how OpenSciEd blends essential biology content with engaging, phenomenon-driven learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover how "traditional" biology topics are incorporated into OpenSciEd High School Biology storylines without giving away students' aha moments and still mantaining rigor.

SPEAKERS:
Kristy Lathrop

Science is a fundamental right for every student, starting in the earliest grades. However, elementary science is often reduced to simplified facts or infrequent activities. This session challenges that narrative, presenting a framework for consistent, complex, and equity-based science instruction across all grade levels. We will explore how to transition from traditional "experiments" to student-led investigations where sense-making is the primary goal. Participants will learn how to leverage three-dimensional instruction (SEPs, CCCs, and DCIs) to build student agency and ensure that every learner—regardless of background or language proficiency—has access to high-level scientific thinking. We will discuss the selection of support materials that reflect diverse voices and the development of non-biased assessments that prioritize conceptual complexity. By treating science as a core pillar of the elementary experience, we create a more equitable landscape for all students. Attendees wi

TAKEAWAYS:
Science belongs in every grade level. Equity is achieved when students are "doers" of science. Use Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) to create inclusive, complex environments where all students have agency to make sense of the world, regardless of their reading level or background.

SPEAKERS:
Tyrone McNichols, Mike Szydlowski, J Carrie Launius, Nicole Williams

This session will help secondary science educators design 3-dimensional transfer tasks for district summative assessments, like finals, that align with NGSS. Participants will explore what makes an assessment truly 3-dimensional and practice using a practical tool to unpack Performance Expectations (PEs), select focal Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) and Crosscutting Concepts (CCCs), and design tasks that require students to apply knowledge in new contexts. Examples based on OpenSciEd High School Assessment System will be shared, along with strategies for scaling this work across classrooms and districts. Attendees will leave with a clear framework and sample tools to start developing their own transfer tasks.

TAKEAWAYS:
Learn how to design 3-dimensional transfer tasks, based on OpenSciEd Assessment System, that assess students' ability to apply science ideas in new contexts, using a practical tool to unpack PEs, SEPs, and CCCs—perfect for creating common district summative assessments aligned with NGSS.

SPEAKERS:
Jacob Noll

In a Title I classroom where 99% of students qualify for free lunch, 5th graders matched the NC state science average despite serving a population that statewide scores 13 points lower. That gap does not close by accident. This workshop puts participants in the student seat. You will experience a full STEM Talk protocol, examine real student notebook entries across proficiency levels, and leave having looked at one lesson from your existing curriculum through both lenses. Grounded in NGSS Science and Engineering Practices, specifically argumentation from evidence and obtaining and communicating information, these structures meet the standards and the student simultaneously. The structures here were built for students who arrived writing random letters in English, for ELL students who had never argued a scientific claim out loud, and for EC students who had never been called on because someone believed they had something worth saying. They did. They do. So do yours.

TAKEAWAYS:
Three questions to hold against any lesson: How do I reach every student with this content? What does mastery look, sound, and feel like here? How do I keep every student thinking, talking, and valued? Applicable to any standard, any grade, any state.

SPEAKERS:
Jacqueline Cormier

Ever wish Mark Rober could co-teach your class? This session shows how Class CrunchLabs uses video, voice, and story to spark curiosity and launch rigorous learning. We will break down how to introduce a storyline, use Mark’s videos as authentic investigation starters, and weave hands-on challenges through episodes of science and engineering. You will also get a peek behind the scenes at how the team builds each unit to help students explain ‘the how’ after experiencing ‘the wow.’ Optional bonus: watermelon smashing included.

TAKEAWAYS:
See how NGSS storylines, teacher supports, and Mark Rober’s videos work together to launch engaging science units that get students asking questions and thinking like scientists from day one.

SPEAKERS:
Spencer Martin

NASA Data, Building Block by Block with Legos offers an innovative, hands-on approach to simplify complex NASA Earth science datasets for K-8 learners. In this workshop, participants will discover how to transform abstract NASA Earth observations into physical 3D models and graphs using Legos. By leveraging the tactile nature of brick-building, educators can bridge the gap between "big data" and learner understanding. We will explore a suite of classroom-ready activities that integrate mathematical thinking and data literacy within the scope of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) 3D learning. Participants will practice using Legos to represent data points, build land cover maps, and visualize sea ice and sea level changes in Earth’s systems, while exploring frameworks for scaffolding data literacy for diverse learners, and gaining access to curated NASA datasets specifically selected for elementary and middle school classroom integration.

TAKEAWAYS:
NASA Data, Building Block by Block with Legos offers an innovative, hands-on approach to simplify complex NASA Earth science datasets for K-8 learners. In this workshop, participants will discover how to transform abstract NASA Earth observations into physical 3D models and graphs using Legos.

SPEAKERS:
Angela Rizzi, Tina Harte - Ballinger

Wondering where familiar physics topics like Newton's laws, energy conservation, and kinematics fit into OpenSciEd High School Physics? In this interactive session, participants will explore how and why these traditional topics are thoughtfully woven into OpenSciEd's six physics units. Through examples from across the course, participants will examine how concepts such as forces, momentum, energy, waves, electricity, and magnetism are integrated into coherent storylines that support student sensemaking while maintaining rigor. For example, students develop ideas about unbalanced forces and energy transfer in P.2 and apply them in P.3 to investigate momentum and Newton's second law. These ideas are then extended to explain gravity, orbits, and electromagnetic radiation. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of how OpenSciEd blends essential physics content with engaging, phenomenon-driven learning.

TAKEAWAYS:
Discover how "traditional" physics topics are incorporated into OpenSciEd High School Physics storylines without giving away students' aha moments and still mantaining rigor.

SPEAKERS:
Kristy Lathrop

Storylines are often presented as a powerful way to engage students in authentic science learning, but what does implementation really look like in practice? This session provides an honest examination of using storylines in a secondary science classroom, including both successes and failures. Through classroom examples, participant discussions, and collaborative brainstorming, attendees will explore how storyline instruction compares with traditional teaching approaches in supporting student engagement, curiosity, and scientific thinking. Participants will leave with a realistic understanding of the opportunities and challenges of storyline implementation and ideas they can immediately adapt for their own classrooms.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will gain a realistic understanding of how storyline instruction can transform science learning and identify practical steps for implementing storylines in their own classrooms.

SPEAKERS:
Erin Snelling

The NSTA Atlas of the Three Dimensions maps out learning progressions based on the Framework for K–12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The 62 maps in the Atlas organize all of the elements from standards on a particular topic (e.g., modeling, patterns, or definitions of energy) on a single page. The elements from grades K–2 are at the bottom of the page, and those from grades 9–12 are at the top. Arrows connect elements to indicate how ideas in a particular topic build on each other and how elements in different topics connect to one another. Studying the maps in the Atlas and the additional resources in the appendixes can provide educators with new insights about the standards. This session will provide an overview of how to read a map, the other features of the Atlas, and how educators can use this powerful navigational tool to develop and implement curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will learn how to read the maps and use other tools in the Atlas to understand and interpret standards and plan instructional sequences as part of their work in curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

SPEAKERS:
Ted Willard

Speaker will actively engage attendees with explorations and discourse, and offer strategies and ideas teachers can implement, to set up Science and STEM explorations and simple engineering problems for young children that support NGSS. She will help attendees grasp the vast scientific concepts and exploration opportunities that comprise the young child’s everyday world. She will discuss the importance of nurturing a child’s natural curiosity and will offer strategies to help children develop their observation and thinking skills. She will emphasize the importance of engaging young children in manipulation of objects and materials so they can recognize the effects of their actions. She will offer strategies to help children develop their science vocabulary. She will model how instruction that starts with children’s questions and provides rich opportunities for exploration and investigation is the most engaging way to introduce and teach science concepts to young children. Handouts.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn strategies and engaging exploration ideas, to create sense-making opportunities for young children, and to inspire children’s sustained curiosities. Activities will be easy and inexpensive to replicate and will help launch a trajectory of learning for young children.

SPEAKERS:
Donna Knoell

A high yield practice (HYP) is based upon John Hattie’s research from Visible Learning (2009) that consistently leads to gains in student learning. These practices represent the best return on investment for instructional time, planning, and collaboration. While there are numerous HYPs, one of the strongest influences on student achievement is teacher clarity. In this interactive session, science educators will explore what teacher clarity looks like in an NGSS-aligned classroom and how it can increase student engagement, sensemaking, and achievement. Participants will examine practical strategies for making learning intentions, success criteria, scientific thinking, and classroom expectations more explicit for students. Through real classroom examples, collaborative discussion, and ready-to-use tools, teachers will learn how clarity can support all learners, including multilingual learners and students with diverse learning needs.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with immediately implementable strategies for improving communication, structuring student discourse, clarifying complex scientific concepts, and increasing student ownership of learning for deeper science understanding.

SPEAKERS:
Lisa Pavic

Students are increasingly using AI in science classrooms, but using AI does not always lead to deeper thinking. Many students rely on AI-generated responses without fully engaging in scientific reasoning. This session explores how teachers can use AI to support, rather than replace, student thinking. Attendees will see classroom examples of how targeted prompts can help students clarify ideas, identify gaps, and strengthen explanations, supporting NGSS-aligned practices such as analyzing evidence and constructing explanations. This session focuses on practical strategies that position AI as a tool for thinking, not an answer source.

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will learn how to use AI to support student thinking and strengthen scientific reasoning rather than replace it during classroom tasks.

SPEAKERS:
Michelle McClanan

How do we improve science instruction without asking teachers to take on one more initiative? School District U-46 is building a coherent K–12 science system that strengthens teacher capacity while reducing fragmentation. Serving more than 35,000 students, the district aligned curriculum, assessment, professional learning, coaching, and teacher leadership into a shared system designed to support educators. Participants will examine teacher leadership teams, coaching structures, PLCs, common assessments, and collaborative planning processes that build collective responsibility for improvement. These structures support 3D science teaching, student sensemaking, and equitable access to science learning while reducing instructional overload. Attendees will explore how these systems were implemented across K–8 and are now being extended into grades 9–12. Participants will leave with practical tools and strategies to strengthen educator support systems and sustain high-quality instruction.

TAKEAWAYS:
Lasting science improvement occurs when schools invest in systems that build teacher capacity, shared leadership, and professional trust, making high-quality instruction easier to deliver rather than adding more to educators' plates.

SPEAKERS:
Deborah McMullen

OpenSciEd and other HQIM offer a strong model for phenomena-based, NGSS-aligned instruction, but meaningful 3D learning - integrating Science and Engineering Practices, Disciplinary Core Ideas, and Crosscutting Concepts—requires intentional design in any curriculum. In this session, participants will explore how strategic adaptations to materials can deepen engagement in all three dimensions while maintaining curricular integrity. Drawing from my 6th-grade classroom, I will share customizable tools and routines that support student-driven sensemaking and equitable participation. Key areas include investigation materials that promote data analysis and evidence-based reasoning; interactive science texts that integrate literacy with sensemaking; formative assessments aligned to 3D outcomes; discourse structures that support collaboration and reasoning; and review tools that help students connect ideas and build coherent understanding.

TAKEAWAYS:
Participants will leave with adaptable strategies and ready-to-use tools to design for 3D learning in any curriculum, empowering students to think, talk, and act like scientists.

SPEAKERS:
Jed Graboys

OpenSciEd instructional materials embed formative assessment opportunities through strategic assessment callouts designed to capture student thinking during key moments of sensemaking. However, teachers often need practical systems to consistently use this information to inform instruction across classrooms. In this session, two middle school educators share how one PLC has developed a sustainable process for leveraging OpenSciEd assessment callouts to create common formative assessments, such as targeted exit slips aligned to lesson goals. Rather than adding additional assessments, the team identified meaningful moments within the existing curriculum to gather evidence of student thinking tied to science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts. These formative assessments are brought into PLC meetings, where teachers collaboratively analyze patterns in student responses, focusing on misconceptions and partial understandings rather than correctness

TAKEAWAYS:
Attendees will leave with a practical process for turning OpenSciEd assessment callouts into meaningful formative assessments, along with strategies for using student data and PLC conversations to identify misconceptions and plan targeted, responsive reteaching that supports student sensemaking.

SPEAKERS:
Kelly Bonifield, Tanya Mueller

Integrating inquiry instruction and writing instruction is the most effective method for improving student’s academic writing across disciplines (Miller, Scott and Mc Tigue). We will make it easy for teachers to accomplish this with the following activities: 1. We will introduce the PMT Model and then provide a video case study demonstration of how it is used to frame inquiry instruction and the inquiry dialogue. We will pause the videos periodically to identify best practice strategies and facilitate reflection on how to meet standards for disciplinary concepts, inquiry, and essay writing. 2. Participants will then pair up for collaborative lesson planning using the PMT Lesson Planning Template and content from a two-minute video on cuttlefish. 3. We will then introduce the PMT Teacher Self-Reflective Tool and explain how it is used for both self-assessment and reciprocal coaching with peers. 4. The remaining time will be used for participant lesson plan exchanges.

TAKEAWAYS:
1. Teachers will be able to use the Picture Me Thinking Model (PMT Model) to develop lesson plans and deliver instruction that integrates standards for inquiry-based instruction and argumentative essay writing instruction in grades 5-12.

SPEAKERS:
Karen Amende